After winning NBA Coach of the Year honors last season in a runaway vote, New Orleans Hornets Coach Byron Scott had the opportunity to sign a long-term extension with the team, a partial reward for a Southwest Division title. But he opted for a two-year agreement that would carry him through the 2009-10 season and be a litmus test for the coach and his young team.

A one-time victim of player discontentment, reportedly led by point guard Jason Kidd, that figured into his firing in New Jersey in the middle of the 2003-04 season -- after he led the Nets to back-to-back Finals appearances -- Scott was aware of the importance of retaining his players' confidence.

"You can go around the league and count the (coaches) on your finger, on one hand, that's been around a team 12 years," Scott said at the time. "That was the tough part. I want to be here and have stated before, when Chris (Paul) decides he wants to hang up basketball, I want to be here and say, 'OK, now I'm going to the front office, because he's gone.

"Tyson Chandler, I feel the same way about him, and David West, as well. It was a tough decision, but I also felt if you take two more years, that's five with Chris, six with David. If they still have that same respect, and I don't doubt that they will, then we can hopefully sign a longer deal. I just want to make sure I give them the opportunity to continue to grow as players and to see in two more years if we're headed in the right direction and they're still paying attention."

After a sobering first-round playoff elimination by Denver, does Scott still have the ear of this Hornets team?

"I believe so," said West, the elder statesman who has been with the Hornets since he came into the league in 2003. "The guys understand the way he wants to play. Guys play for him. Guys have respect for him. I know I do. I respect what he tries to do. Like I said, we got put in a tough spot. He was put in a tough spot with guys being banged up. Even in the beginning, I don't think we had a good enough rhythm, where we played together well enough throughout the year to make a sustainable run."

Forward James Posey, who has played for six NBA teams and won two championships, said Scott and the staff did their jobs this season. It was the players who didn't.

"I believe that even though they fire the coaches and things like that throughout the league, regardless of the level, it's the players that go out there and are supposed to get it done," Posey said. "If you have players that buy into the system and go out there and do what they're supposed to do, everything is fine. Sometimes when you don't have players out there doing what the coach asks them to do, man, the players for the most part don't get punished. It's always the coaches that go.

"I think everything is pretty positive around here. I think we have a good coaching staff that prepared us every night for what we were supposed to do. When we didn't do it, that's when we lost ball games."

Scott's message, Posey said, remains fresh and still resonates throughout the team.

"Our coaching staff does a great job of preparing us," Posey said. "We have as much film and breakdowns as we need to, but at times, regardless of how long you've been in the league, you still have to take it upon yourself to understand the game plan, understand the game, watch film, watch tape and things like that.

"It just goes to show how much you want it, how much you want to improve as a player and also a player being on the team, you also have to do your part."

Jimmy Smith can be reached at jsmith@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3814.
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